What is LIRC ?

LIRC is a package that allows you to decode and send
infra-red signals of many (but not all) commonly used
remote controls.

Recent linux kernels make it possible to use some IR remote
controls as regular input devices. In some cases this makes
LIRC redundant. However, LIRC offers more flexibility and
functionality and is still the right tool in a lot of
scenarios.

Former versions focussed on home-brew hardware connected
to the serial or parallel port. Descriptions how to build
this hardware can be found here. Current versions of LIRC
also support a variety of other hardware. An up-to-date
list of all supported devices and the status of the
according drivers is available on the left.

The most important part of LIRC is the lircd daemon that
will decode IR signals received by the device drivers and
provide the information on a socket. It will also accept
commands for IR signals to be sent if the hardware
supports this. The second daemon program called lircmd
will connect to lircd and translate the decoded IR signals
to mouse movements. You can e.g. configure X to use your
remote control as an input device.

The user space applications will allow you to control your
computer with your remote control. You can send X events
to applications, start programs and much more on just one
button press. The possible applications are obvious:
Infra-red mouse, remote control for your TV tuner card or
CD-ROM, shutdown by remote, program your VCR and/or
satellite tuner with your computer, etc. I've heard that
using lirc on Raspberry Pie is quite popular these days.

Supported remote controls

There are some config files for remote controls at
the remotes database.
This is about 2000 devices and counting. These devices
should work with the general drivers or (if it lacks timing
info) the driver used to create them.

If you can't find your remote control here it does not
mean that your remote control is not supported. It's just that
there is no config file for it yet. All remote controls that are
supported by learning remote controls, i.e. almost any,
should also work with LIRC.

Supported capture devices

Besides a remote control you also need a capture device
to read the data from the remote. LIRC supports a broad
range of input devices. As a starter, you can use the
kernel built-in support for many USB dongles and similar.
Besides this LIRC supports basically any conceivable way
to capture your data including serial devices, parallel
ports, sound input etc. You can see the complete list in
the left pane.

News

[9-Dec-2014]

lirc-0.9.2 released.

[10-Jun-2014]

lirc-0.9.1 released.

[10-Jun-2014]

LIRC has a new maintainer! Yay!

[26-Mar-2011]

lirc-0.9.0 released.

[06-Sep-2010]

lirc-0.8.7 released. After more than 10 years LIRC
has a new maintainer. Jarod Wilson is taking
over. Good luck for the next 10 years!

[13-Sep-2009]

lirc-0.8.6 released.

[21-May-2009]

lirc-0.8.5 released.

[12-Oct-2008]

lirc-0.8.4 released.

[04-May-2008]

lirc-0.8.3 released.

[09-Jun-2007]

lirc-0.8.2 released.

[07-Jan-2007]

lirc-0.8.1 released.

[25-Feb-2006]

A new 0.4.4 maintenance
release of libirman fixes incompatibilities
with gcc 4.0.

[21-Jan-2006]

lirc-0.8.0 released.

[14-Aug-2005]

lirc-0.7.2 released.

[17-Apr-2005]

lirc-0.7.1 released.

[07-Nov-2004]

lirc-0.7.0 released. In memoriam Manuel Estrada Sainz.

[04-Apr-2004]

I have made a 0.4.3 maintenance release of
libirman. This should fix incompatibilities with 2.6
kernels.

Got it! I have the specs for the Hauppauge
remote control. :-) Many thanks go to
Roger Hardiman for providing the necessary
information and Peter Stevenson for finding Roger.

[31-Jan-1999]

Recently a Tekram IRMate IR-210 fell
into my hands. I managed to send IR signals to my
satellite receiver using my linux box within 1 hour!
Receiving of IR signals was also possible but has some
limitations.
You can see this as a motivation for you to work on support
for IrDA compliant hardware as I don't have the time
to do it myself.